13th Century Spanish Loom

by Forest Butera, Summerisle Spinners and Weavers,
Inc.

Summerisle Spinners and Weavers, Inc. has embarked on its biggest
project yet - building a replica of a 13th century Spanish floor
loom! The original loom can be seen at Medieval Life Village adjacent
to the Medieval Times
dinner theater in Kissimmee, Florida. The loom is now finished
and ready for demonstration at the South Florida Renaissance Festival
in February, 2000. Our loom builder is Allen Jones of Harpers
Ferry, West Virginia.

The idea for this project was born in 1997, and finally got
under way in the summer of 1999. Weaver, Forest Butera made several
visits to Medieval Life Village to measure and photograph the
original loom, then drew up the plans for his Dad, woodworker
Allen Jones to work from. Allen's job began with visits to lumber
yards in West Virginia in search of the timber which would become
the loom. Much of the wood had to be custom milled. The wood used
in the loom is poplar, white oak, red oak and just a little bit
of yellow pine. The woods were chosen partially for their strength
and durability, and partially for their availability.

The original loom was copied faithfully except in a few instances
which are explained below with the photographs. The loom is made
entirely of wood with mortise, tenon and peg construction just
as the original.

Click on any of the following pictures to see an
enarged version.

The
original, 800 year old loom which served as the model for our
replica.

And here is our completed version of the loom set up in the parking
lot outside of my office in Port St. Lucie, Florida. The loom
(all 500+ pounds of it) were brought down from West Virginia a
week before the February 2000 Festival for final adjustments,
rigging, and finishing (with a coat of linseed oil).

One
of the massive (8" x 8" x 4') legs on our replica.

A leg on the original loom.

This
picture shows (from left to right) the toothed wheel attached
to the cloth beam, the breast beam and the seat. The breast beam
was moved a few inches closer to the weaver in the replica loom.
The seat on the replica was made wider than the original beam
which apparently served as a seat on the original loom. You can
also see the brake stick for the cloth beam in this picture. It
is not attached to the loom, but mere jams between the leg and
the toothed wheel. We had to glue two pieces of wood edge-to-edge
to form the 17" blank needed for the toothed wheel. It is
nearly impossible to find lumber that wide these days. There are
36 teeth in the wheel, just like the original.

Here
are the same parts on the original loom. Weavers will note that
there is no knee beam on this loom. The use of even a breast beam
is rare in old looms. In many the cloth beam would be located
where we now find the breast beam. We found that someone in recent
history had nailed a board onto one of the original beams to serve
as a seat on this loom. The original seat beam was only about
four inches wide. There were no signs of missing pieces so we
are a bit puzzled as to why the original loom maker would have
created such a narrow beam for a seat. We modified this beam by
making it wider as the added-on seat on the old loom appears.
We noted that the brake stick on the old loom had a single nail
through it, acting as a pivot and attaching it to the side beam.
This was definitely another add-on. The original brake stick would
have rested against the leg as we have done or may have jammed
in a hole in the floor.

Here
is a close-up of how we attached the treadles to the loom. We
noted that the treadle mechanism had been added on to the original
loom (again by modern nails). Since there was no sign of attachment
points for treadles on the original loom we believe the tradles
would have been attached to a bracket set into the floor of the
weaving shop or house as we have noted in old drawings. Since
our loom had to be portable we used a configuration similar to
the one added onto the original loom, but we used mortise and
tenon joinery as would be correct for the time period. (The pivot/axel
for the treadles is sticking out further on the right only because
we didn't notice it while taking the photograph). On the back
edge of the seat board (above the beam to which the treadles attach)
you can see the marks left by the enormous saw blade at the old-fashioned
mill from which much of the lumber was purchased. We left them
in as a point of interest.

The non-original treadle attachment on the original loom.

This
is a view from the back of the loom showing the configuration
of the back beam. The beam sits in pockets hollowed on in the
two back legs. We determined that the lips of these pockets had
been worn down on the original loom to the extent that they were
required to use braces to hold the beam in as shown on the picture
below. The original back beam and cloth beams included a long
groove into which a stick at either end of the warp would be placed.
That configuration can waste a lot of warp so we chose to
drill holes in the warp and cloth beams to allow the warp sticks
to be laced on as is done on modern looms. The stick resting on
the tenons just below the back beam is temporarily preventing
the back beam from turning during the warping process. While weaving
is taking place the warp is held under tension with backs of stones
hooked to the back beam as shown on the original loom below.

This
picture of the back beam of the original loom shows several modifications.
The sectional warping apparatus was nailed to the original back
beam. The light colored piece of wood tucked under the peg on
the left leg is being used to hold the warp beam in place since
the original hollow in the leg has become too worn to hold the
beam in properly. The bag holds stones or sand which acts much
as a friction brake does on a modern loom.

This
pulley block, on which the cord holding the harnesses rides, duplicates
the original.

Getting
the harnesses to sit level was quite a trick. We eventually found
that using one loop of jute cord (one end of the cord ties to
one end of the lower harness stick, and the other end of the cord
ties to the other end of the same lower harness stick). Then a
shorter piece of cord is looped around the end of a treadle then
is fastened to the loop already attached to the lower harness
stick. The short cord can not be tied to the middle of the loop,
but must be shifted a bit left or right and tied tightly when
just the right balance is achieved. Some tilt to the harnesses
seems to be inevitable.

We do not have any good photographs of the hand-tied linen
heddles or the wonderful, antique reed we found to use on the
loom. We will be sure to take pictures of those next time we have
the loom set up.

Some construction photographs

Here's the same beam almost finished. Other parts of the loom
which required varying degrees of handwork were the wooden nails
which hold the bottom of the beater to the beater uprights; the
hand-grip on the beater top; the ends of the bar from which the
beater swings; and the cradle/blocks on which this beater top
bar pivots.

Allen is putting the finishing touches on one of the many mortises
this loom contains. One of the biggest challenges, he says, was
cutting the mortises in the 8" thick legs. Power tools were
used whenever possible to expedite the project, but he burnt up
one heavy duty drill (using a 2" bit) and had to purchase
another before the project was finished.

Allen tries out the seat on the loom-in-progress. As a woodworker,
but not a weaver Allen solved all the mysteries of how the various
parts of the loom should be fabricated. Forest, as a weaver and
not-yet-woodworker, was on hand toward the end of the project
when a weaver's input became necessary. It led them to wonder
whether the builder of the original loom was also a weaver? Did
he copy another loom? I'm not sure we will ever know.